Yesterday was just nuts, as the volatility ruled the roost again. After knee jerking higher on the Fed's statement, the air came out of that and down we went. We ended the show with the DOW down 222 and the S&P down 20. Then overnight the volatility continued. For a while the S&P futures were up 18, then went all the way to red, and then this morning have crawled back to green. Again.

Yesterday the market put in another of its manic, mindless romps higher. Yes oil was up and they liked that, but was there any guarantee that oil would stay up? Nope, and indeed overnight it pulled back again.

After the bell yesterday, AAPL announced earnings. While they were still spectacular, it was the first time since 2003 that sales growth actually slowed. Tim Cook had to admit that the global economy just wasn't what he thought it would be. Glad you woke up Tim.

NOTE>>. I don't know what happened yesterday afternoon to the afternoon update at 1 pm. Some folks got it and some simply didn't, which probably means constant contact had a little glitch on that sending. Do NOT FORGET that this is why we also post the updates to the web site. Simply log in, and look for insiders Club under "categories' on the right. Click Insiders Club and you'll be right there.

Good morning all, welcome back from your weekend. For many of you, this Sunday was a lot of fun as the Football games to decide who's going to the Superbowl were in play, and I know there's a ton of big sports fans in our readership. I'm not a massive sports junkie by any means, but I do confess to watching both games. I thought the suspense at the end of the Boston/Denver game was pretty good, because if anyone had the ability to find a way to tie the game, it was Brady...but no, the last minute attempts failed.

NOTE>>> The second update of the day, which I usually send at about 10:40 will be delayed. I'll be doing a radio interview with Phil Mikan on WMRD 1150 out of Middletown CT. Mr. Mikan and I go way back, and have become very good friends. It will be general discussion, and pretty light hearted as we like to have fun with each other. He's truly a "good guy". So, that runs from 10- 11, thus I'll put out an update a few minutes after the hour

Okay, so yesterday afternoon I laid out for you all that I thought the volume was big enough, the Advance/decline line ugly enough, the 52 week lows terrible enough...to consider a short term bottom. I wanted to get a piece of the bounce, and as luck would have it, shortly after I sent the 1 pm update, where the DOW had already bounced about 90 points off the low, it faded back down again. While it never got to -550 again, it did get down to about -500 and once again started up.

What a whacked out day yesterday was. After opening to the tune of almost 200 points the steam came out of the market and we drifted lower. We've seen that several times. Then in the last hour, we came into that closing hour with the DOW down about 80 points. But... they got word of a rumor that maybe China was going to do more QE, and "boom" up we went. When I sent the afternoon update at 3:15, we were down about 40 DOW points. By 3:30 we were UP about 70.

This past weekend got pretty strange down here in Sarasota. At 2:30 am Saturday morning my phone started screaming at me. It was a Tornado warning and cells had been spotted in my area. I was shaking my head trying to make sense of the alert. This is West Coast Florida. In JANUARY. And they say there's tornadoes around? Oh yes indeed. At about 3 am, all hell broke loose at my house. Wind gusts to 75+, incredible thunder and lightening, and rain like a tsunami. Well, we got lucky. Except for some minor damage, we escaped quite well. However on Siesta Key itself, roofs were torn off, windows broken, sliding glass doors ripped out, 100 year old oak trees uprooted and smashed on cars, etc.

Good morning all, we've made it to Friday and it just happens to be a three day weekend for the Martin Luther King Holiday on Monday. That's fine, I could use the break!

Okay, so yesterday they manufactured a snap back rally. We had reached down to "almost" test the August lows and then they came in and bought it up. At one point, we were up almost 320 DOW points, but in the last half hour, a bit of expected weakness crept in and took off some of the froth. For a few minutes it looked like we might not even hold onto + 200 points as we were fading and printing just 215. But they held on and we finished the day up 227.